A Methodist preacher with a sense of humor

I'd never suggest that preachers are lacking in humor, but some are. As counterpoint, the Rev. Artemas Brown (1822-1890)  seems to have been richly endowed in that department.

He was, according to a history of the Clarinda Methodist Episcopal Church, which he served 1871-72, "the jolliest and most humorous man that this church ever had."

According to a brief biography of his son, also Artemas Brown, the Rev. Mr. Brown "was for forty years a Methodist minister and for twenty-five years a member of the Des Moines Conference. He filled many of the important appointments in his conference and was presiding elder of the Chariton District when he died. He was born on a farm near Marietta, Ohio, December 17, 1822, and was educated at the Drew Theological Seminary, Concord, N. H. He died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Judge Green, at Audubon, Iowa, February 9, 1890." Mrs. Brown, nee Margaret Agnes Thorp, was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, December 9, 1822. They were married in 1852.

In 1883, the Rev. Mr. Brown was assigned as pastor to the Russell Methodist Episcopal Church and it probably was there that Henry Gittinger, the Russell boy who went on to edit and publish The Chariton Leader first encountered him.

Forty years later, in The Leader of April 22, 1920, Henry shared the following recollection of the Rev. Mr. Brown:

"Rev. Artemas Brown, a former presiding elder of the Chariton district, was long known as the 'wag' of the conference. Once charges were preferred against him and he was brought before the conference and reprimanded. He was retained however, on probation, and requested to mend the ways of his levity and sport.

"This he did and the report to the bishop was about as follows: 'My dear brother: Since your penance I have tried to be solemn, but all to no avail. The mere thought of the situation would make a saint smile if his liver was not torpid. I have applied a carpet stretcher to my face before every sermon since and have read nothing but the book of Job and epitaphs on the tombstones in my daily walks through the cemetery until even our undertaker shuns me. If you don't think my reform is sufficient, please send me a shroud.'

"You may truly suppose Artemas was retained and went on preaching salvation and distributing sunshine until the angels carried him home. He had the courage to ridicule long-faced christianity under peculiar circumstances and he was elevated to an eldership. 'Just as I am without one plea' without any attempt to improve on the work of the Almighty was his motto. And often have we thought what a dearth there is of souls full of real sunshine."

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The Rev. Mr. Brown is buried at Maple Grove Cemetery, Audubon, and has two markers there, one a substantial Woodmen of the World monument with his given name spelled one way, "Artemas," and the other, a smaller head stone upon which the name is spelled another, "Artemus." 

Artemas of Lystra, mentioned in St. Paul's letter to Titus, obviously was the source of the Rev. Mr. Brown's given name, but it's a name that encourages creative variations in spelling that can confuse researchers. And like many other things, he may have found that amusing.